Pune ISIS module case: NIA arrests 2 accused from Mumbai airport on return from Indonesia

According to the agency, both accused, already chargesheeted along with the other arrested accused in this case, had been engaged in assembling Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at a house rented by Abdullah Shaikh in Kondhwa. Between 2022 and 2023, they had also “organised and participated in a bomb-making and training workshop, besides carrying out a controlled explosion to test an IED fabricated by them, at these premises,” the release stated.

They were alleged to have conducted bomb tests in the jungles of Pune and other places. Explosive material, tents, a drone, and several electronic devices were seized from their possession, the police said.

The accused had non-bailable warrants issued against them by the NIA Special Court in Mumbai and were on the run for the last two years. The NIA had, in September 2023, declared a reward of Rs 3 lakh for information on them.

After securing their custody from the court, the agency will try to get information regarding their hideouts, the people who helped them with funds, etc, sources said.

Besides Abdullah Shaikh and Talha Khan, the others arrested in the case are Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohammed Yunus Saki, Abdul Kadir Pathan, Simab Nasiruddin Kazi, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Shamil Nachan, Akif Nachan, and Shahnawaz Alam. The agency had previously chargesheeted all the 10 accused in the case under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, and the Indian Penal Code.

The NIA’s release stated that the accused had conspired to commit terrorist acts with the aim to disturb communal harmony by waging a war against the country in furtherance of the ISIS agenda to establish Islamic rule in the country through violence and terror.

A breakthrough in this case had come after police personnel Amol Najan, Pradip Chavan, Bala Rafi Shaikh, Aniket Jamdade and Dnyaneshwar Panchal of the Kothrud police station, while performing night patrolling duty, had nabbed three suspects Mohammed Shahnawaz Alam alias Shafi alias Abdulla of Jharkhand, Mohammed Yusuf Khan and Mohammed Yunus Mohammed Yakub Saki, both from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, on suspicion of vehicle theft from Kothrud area, around 2.30 am on July 18, 2023.

Alam allegedly escaped from police custody when the suspects were being taken for a house search in Kondhwa. The probe revealed that both Khan and Saki were “most wanted” by the NIA in a case relating to the recovery of explosives from a car in Rajasthan in March 2022. Alam, Khan and Saki were residing in Kondhwa posing as “graphic designers”, the police said.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) took over the probe from the Pune police and arrested a few more suspects with alleged ISIS links. The investigation was handed over to the NIA on August 8, 2023 and the central agency named it the “Pune ISIS module case”.

In October 2023, Alam was arrested by the Delhi Police. During further probe, the NIA arrested Shamil Nachan and his father Saqib Nachan, the key accused, from Padgha in Thane rural, for their alleged links with ISIS.

Raid at Talha Khan’s house in 2022

In March 2022, the NIA had raided Talha’s house in Mitha Nagar, Kondhwa, during a probe into the arrest of a Kashmiri couple with alleged links to Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), the Afghanistan-based faction of the Islamic State (IS).

The Kashmiri couple, identified as Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh, was first arrested by Delhi Police on March 8, 2020. Later, the investigation was taken over by the NIA. While Talha Khan was not arrested by the NIA at the time, a press release had stated that during a search at his house, various incriminating documents and digital devices were seized.

Following further investigation, the NIA had arrested four more people in the case, including Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, a journalism student from Vishrantwadi in Pune. In May 2024, a special NIA court in New Delhi convicted five people, including Sadiya Anwar Shaikh in this case.